For cyclists

Marrickville Council has developed and is continually upgrading a range of on-road cycling facilities for cyclists. There are also off-road cycling facilities which allow cyclists to ride on a paved surface without interference from vehicles.

Cycle crashes

Each year about 23 bicycle crashes in Marrickville are reported to the police. The injured cyclists are most likely to be males (81%) and aged between 26 and 39 years (38%). Over 15% of these casualties were not wearing a helmet when they crashed.

Figure 1. Age group of pedal cycle casualties in Marrickville 2000-2004

Bicycle crashes are most likely to occur at intersections (72%). Less than half of all intersection crashes were due to the action of the cyclists. The single most common error by cyclists was entering the roadway from the footpath (15% of all crashes).

Where the other driver was at fault, it was most likely that they either turned across the path of a cyclist at an intersection (13%), opened their door when parked (10%) or side swipe them while passing (9%).

The Princes Highway has the highest frequency of reported bicycle crashes with an average of 3 each year. However it is important to remember that not all pedal cycle crashes are reported to the police, so these figures may represent only a proportion of the actual crashes.